


The Fire Prince

by TippenFunkaport



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Beasts AU, F/M, Fire, M/M, Sea Hawk POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 09:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27968537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TippenFunkaport/pseuds/TippenFunkaport
Summary: It’s been nearly two decades since King Micah’s rebellion fell and Lord Hordak took over Etheria. The sorcerers last desperate gambit, a dangerous spell to unleash the magic trapped in the center of the planet, went terribly wrong and everything with magic is gone or altered beyond recognition. But while the runestones and their princesses disappeared long ago, one remains. A folk hero that uses her fiery magic to keep the Horde in line, dispensing justice along the coastline and giving the people hope that perhaps the magic of Etheria is not as dead as they have been told.Not that Sea Hawk believes those stories, mind you. He’s just a simple trader, minding his own shipments and taking jobs from both sides to make ends meet.But when someone betrays the rebellion, and the Fire Princess herself has her feet to the flames, Sea Hawk will discover that the folktales might be truer than anyone imagined.More spoiler-y description: AU with Sea Hawk as arsonist Robin Hood
Relationships: Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra), Falcon/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Past Relationships - Relationship
Comments: 24
Kudos: 23





	The Fire Prince

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone in this fandom gets at least one needlessly complicated self indulgent AU and this is MINE, baby!

“Captain! The Sea Hawk, sir! Come quick!” The cabin boy was leaning over the railing, pointing at something just off the port bow. “Something’s on fire!”

Ah! About time! He’d been running out of ways to stall their departure. One can only check the rat lines so many times. 

“What is it, lad?” Sea Hawk tried to keep his face neutral as he rolled up the shipment order he’d been pretending to check for the last fifteen minutes with exaggerated slowness, as if whatever was off the port bow didn’t concern him in the least. He allowed himself a little spring in his step as he made his way over the railing. 

“Look, sir! Isn’t that one of Lord Hordak’s ship? Gosh, it almost looks like the one we just did the job for this morning!” 

“Does it? Wouldn’t that be a coincidence? Though you know all Horde ships look the same. No character.” He added the last bit under his breath because while he trusted his crew enough with his boat, he wasn’t entirely sure he trusted them with his life. The goons Falcon had hired looked like they’d sell their own father if the market price was high enough. But, still, clever lad that cabin boy, even if he looked like a bit like a squid that was midway through swallowing a walrus. 

Sea Hawk pulled his spyglass out of the pocket of his mother’s elaborate longcoat, the one he only bothered to put on when they were out on Horde business and he needed to look legit. His entire legacy: a boat and a coat. It only took him a moment to focus in on the ship and that horrible octopus woman flailing all her arms while her stooges scrambled around trying to deal with the flames. 

Well, good luck with that. He pretended to fix his mustache to hide his grin. If you start them with the right spark, there are some fires nothing can put out. 

“It’s all right, boy.” He clapped the lad on his squelchy back. “They’ll all get off alright. The fire’s on the opposite side of the lifeboats. Probably just an issue with the fan. Tricky things, motors. That’s why I only trust the wind and waves!” 

He went back to his spyglass, watching the flames lick the sides of the ship, oranges and yellows dancing in the waves. The air rippled like the ship was underwater. Embers devoured the Horde banners and dissolved them into nothing before his eyes. 

“But Captain The Sea Hawk… sir…” The boy’s voice was low, and he leaned closer. “Do you remember what happened on the dock? As we were packing up?”

Sea Hawk said nothing, just watched the ship burn. 

“Are we going to be leaving any time soon… Captain?” Falcon may as well have been passing a stone the way he got that last word out and Sea Hawk gave him a sideways smirk. Falcon rolled his eyes. Well, eye since the other one was covered with an eye-patch. 

“In a minute.” He waved him off, but Falcon stayed, his back to the railing. 

“It’s just that… sir…” The cabin boy lowered his voice even more and Sea Hawk had to bend to hear him over the chatter of the crew and soft rush of the waves against the side of the Dragon’s Daughter. “I mean, those people weren’t doing anything. Like the mayor said, they grew that stuff themselves, on their own time. It wasn’t taking anything from Lord Hordak. And that lady with all the arms, she just took it all, no payment or nothing.”

“What’s your meaning, lad?” He tried to put a little menace in it. They had a bit more freedom here on the sea, but the boy would get himself killed talking like in front of the wrong person. He glanced at Falcon, but the pretty boy was watching the crew milling about the deck with that bored look he always had when no one was paying him any attention. 

“Not that I am criticizing Lord Hordak, sir, of course. Lord Hordak is merciful and the Horde’s rule is, uh…” 

“Was there something you were trying to ask?” 

“Do you think… it might have been her?” The boy’s voice was barely a breath, his watery eyes wide. Then his words came out in a rush, all pretense of keeping his voice down gone. “Because that’s what she does, isn’t it? Like when that noble ratted out the old medicine woman in the woods? Or the time they raised the tax on cloth and would only pay half last month’s rate?” 

Sea Hawk made a non-committal sound. 

The boy moistened his fishy lips. “The Fire Princess. She made them burn.”

The boy glanced over his shoulder, and Sea Hawk did the same. They were attracting a bit of a crowd. The crew had clustered behind them, looping ropes and scrubbing the deck with half an ear to their conversation. 

“Ah. The Fire Princess. I’m familiar with the legend. Princess of Candila, wasn’t it? Powerful runestone. The Spirit Ember. But that was hundreds of years ago. Long before Lord Hordak’s freed Etheria from the tyranny of the princesses and their magic. I have heard the ballads, and you know I’d be more than happy to sing you a few once we get underway, but I’m afraid the princesses, runestones and all their magic are all long gone.” 

The boy nodded, crestfallen. Poor lad. Hard to blame him for wanting to believe in magic things how they were. Well, who was he to deny the people their folk hero?

Sea Hawk grabbed the nearest crate and slammed his foot down on it. He turned to his crew, who were all watching him, rapt. Well, except for Falcon’s men, but you can’t please everyone. Still! He could be quite the showman when he needed to be. 

“HOWEVER! There are those that believe that the magic is not all gone! That when the sorcerers released the magic at the center of the planet, destroying themselves and handing Lord Hordak his victory, the planet protected its runestones. Some say the kingdoms were swallowed up by Etheria itself and are still buried somewhere, waiting. And if the runestones could still be out there, then who’s to say the princesses aren’t too, ready to exact vengeance on whoever wrongs the downtrodden! Perhaps someday they will all return and use their magic to take back their planet for the people of Etheria!” 

He ended in a crescendo, a fist to the sky. The crews’ eyes glowed, and he knew, rationally, that it was the reflection from the raging fire behind him, but it felt like it was with something else too. And what was the harm in a story if it gave everyone a little hope? Next to him, Falcon gave him a pointed, slightly disgusted look. Sea Hawk sighed and took his foot off the barrel, adopting what he hoped was a commanding stance. 

“Not that I believe any of that, of course. You all know your captain is a sensible, level-headed man.” They all chuckled at that. “But enough fairy tales. Pull up anchor! It’s time we got underway.”

Once he’d given the orders and sent everyone scurrying to their posts, he turned the wheel over to the second mate and went to the stern, watching until the Horde boat had sunk entirely, the sea swallowing up the flames. 

“Why did I know I’d find you here?” Falcon leaned his back against the railing, the sea air trailing his long blond hair behind him. He’d rolled the sleeves of his shirt up to show off his ample tan muscles. A lesser man might have been tempted. Sea Hawk turned back to the receding speck of embers. “We should have gotten out of there hours ago.”

“Now Falcon, my good man, where’s the fun in that? This is why we would have never worked. No sense of ADVENTURE!” They’d caught a good wind. The burning boat disappeared over the horizon. Instead, he watched the boat’s obsidian wake, like an open door beckoning him downward. Sometimes he watched it for hours like this. It often felt like the sea was calling him down into its mysterious depths. Adventure indeed. “Besides, I like to watch.”

“Oh, I don’t I know it. You’d set your own ship on fire if they weren’t so hard to come by.” Falcon’s lazy drawl made it seem like he was bored with this conversation, but Sea Hawk knew him well enough to see the mischief in his eyes. Sea Hawk gave him a half grin. “Sometimes I think you believe all that princess crap.”

Sea Hawk laughed outright at that. “Don’t be a fool. The princesses are long gone. Dead or as good as. But there’s no harm in a good story if it gives people hope. You see what it’s like for most of them out there. Up and down this coast, every town we stop at, they sing songs and tell tales of The Fire Princess, the hero of the common people. The legend spreads!” 

“Right. Because you’re the one spreading it.”

Sea Hawk ignored that. A shame, really. The man was so nice to look at, but absolutely no fun at all. “Ah, but the Horde tells stories of the Fire Princess too. Stories that make them think twice.”

“If you say so.” Falcon snorted. “All I know is she better be careful. You don’t think the crew’s suspicious about that extra shipment today?” 

“Pah! Why do you think I cycle them out every few weeks? I’d cycle you out too if you had anywhere else to go, you layabout. Speaking of, isn’t there something useful you could be doing? I thought our agreement was you could only stay if you were a proper member of the crew?”

“I call you Captain in front of the rest, that’s humiliation enough. I need a damned boat of my own! Watching the idiotic way you run things on here drives me to drink.”

Sea Hawk turned to face him. “What’s wrong with the way I run things?”

“All that stuff you filched from the Horde! You sold it back to the town for a fraction of the price. Might as well have let it burn with the boat if that’s all you were going to do with it.”

“I didn’t sell it all back. Kept nearly a quarter of it for us! Now we won’t need to stop and restock before we get back to Seaworthy, which will save us a bundle. You’ll thank me for that when you’re not eating tack and hard biscuits the last few days. Besides, that’s just good business. You heard the mayor, very grateful, much more likely to hire us the next time.” 

He didn’t add that it was what his mother would have done, though she probably would have done it for free. He glanced over involuntarily, half expecting her to be sitting with her legs up on the back railing, like she used to when he was a boy. Sometimes it felt like she was still here, in every creak of the old wood, every shush of the sails. Which was why he couldn’t lose this ship. It would be like losing her all over again. 

“Yeah, well, the Horde was taking it from them for nothing. They could have coughed up a few credits over market price for a finder’s fee. Or, better yet, we could have taken it all up the coast and made the sea elves pay out the gills for it.” 

“Come on, there’s no point in being greedy. I’ve got enough for wages this month and to pay off the lien on the boat YOU were so eager for me to take. Besides, I shorted the Horde about two dozen cartridges off that other shipment that I can turn around and sell to the rebellion when we get back to Seaworthy. How do you like that? Double dipping!” 

“Playing the Horde AND the rebellion.” Falcon rolled his eye. “You better knock it off, Hawk. You’re really playing with fire.”

Sea Hawk grinned. “You know me. I love playing with fire.” 

—

The air felt a little lighter as Sea Hawk walked the streets of Seaworthy. It still stank of old fish and that burning chemical smell you could only really escape at sea but, still. There was a cheerful sort of glow to the orange sky. Between the Horde job and the bonus payday from the rebellion, he finally had plenty to pay off that lien on his boat. Though he still wasn’t convinced those repairs couldn’t have waited until next season, but he’d been sick of fighting with Falcon about it. 

The fellow was a bit of a pill, but they went way back. That much history meant something, didn’t it? And they were actually almost proper friends now, though he sometimes wondered if that was because he was the only one of the pair that truly considered THAT part of their relationship over. 

But at least now the Dragon’s Daughter would be his properly again. No more Horde jobs unless he needed the cash. He’d finally be free. Just a quick stop at the bankers and then back to his ship to make sure all was ready before they left port again for the next job. 

Bah! The banker was out for the hour, according to the sign. He could go back and wait at the ship, but by the time he got there it would only be time to come back. Falcon had said he’d mind the crew, anyway. 

Let’s see. What to do with an hour free? Not the bar, he’d only be tempted to spend the boat money on drinks and cards. 

Ah! That was it. He spun on his heel and headed down towards the seedier part of town, the part no fool without a cutlass hidden in his jacket would dare step foot in. But he had friends down this way, friends who were happy enough to refill his cup and listen to his shanties and stories so long as he gave them some useful information while he was at it. 

Besides, when he’d traded with them this morning, Huntara had told him she’d get together a list of what else they needed and he ought to pick that up before they set sail. The rebellion was small and couldn’t pay much, but they didn’t ask questions about where he got the goods, which made them ideal customers as far as he was concerned. 

And they were good people, even if they’d thrown their lot behind an impossible cause. Like a handful of children trying to take on the thousand pound monster that was the Horde. Not that that seemed to deter them from trying. He smiled. Huntara reminded him a bit of his mother sometimes, though he’d never be fool enough to tell her that. 

Something was wrong. He knew as soon as he turned down the old alleyway. The hidden panel in the wall, the one where you gave the password, had been ripped clean off and smoke billowed out the opening. The cramped quarters were charred and burned out, the walls lanced with blaster fire. 

He should run. It would mean death if anyone found him here but… He hesitated in the doorway and then went in, searching through the rubble for something, anything but there was nothing left. But then… Something caught his eyes on the ground and he reached for it. 

A notice half burned away. Something about traitors to Lord Hordak, taken for questioning at the Fright Zone. Sea Hawk’s muscles tensed, his vision tunneling as he crumpled the paper in his hands.

Someone had ratted them out. Someone had turned his friends into the Horde.

And he knew exactly who it was. 

—

“Falcon!” Sea Hawk stormed up the gangplank, shoving aside some crew members he didn’t recognize that were loading something he’d have to find out about later. There he was, looking as smug as ever and… was that asshole wearing his coat? 

“Ah, Sea Hawk. I was wondering when you’d show—Hurk!” He didn’t get to finish the sentence because Sea Hawk grabbed him and shoved him against the side of the captain’s cabin by his throat. 

“You sold them out. The rebellion. They were my friends, Falcon!”

Falcon made a choking sound, his normally handsome face turning purple. Sea Hawk released him just enough so that he could talk. The smug bastard actually laughed. “Come on, Hawk. Do you know the going bounty on rebellion fighters? You could have done a dozen jobs for them and still wouldn’t have earned as much as even one of them was worth. You sold them your cartridges and then I sold them.” He mimicked Sea Hawk’s voice. “How do you like that? Double dipping!”

Sea Hawk tightened his hand around the man’s neck again. “They are people, man, not bags of apples! Do you know what the Horde does to their prisoners?” 

He shuddered. Everyone knew about the Hordak’s experiments with mind control. Neck implants that would let him control you if they worked, but more often than not just left people no better than vegetables. 

“I couldn’t care less what Lord Hordak does with them. And it’s not my fault if you have no business sense.”

Sea Hawk was so angry he could barely form words. He tossed the man to the ground. “Get off my boat.” 

The man laughed as he got to his feet, a weaselly little sound that made Sea Hawk want to smash his face. “Actually, it’s my boat now. You just missed the banker. Made such a tidy profit selling out your rebellion friends, I bought it right out from under you. Thought it might be fun to take the piss out of you, make you call me Captain for a while.”

“My boat! But it’s… I trusted you, Falcon. All these years… I’m going to kill you.” Sea Hawk lunged for him, but two of the men he hadn’t recognized grabbed him and held him back. 

“Now, now. I know you’re upset by my little prank, but once you calm down, you’ll see it’s for the best. You were going to get yourself killed, trying to play both sides. And it’s just a boat.”

“MY boat! My Mother’s boat! You’d understand what it meant to me if you cared about anything, anyone, besides yourself!” He spat at Falcon, but the other man dodged and it only landed at his feet. 

“Calm down, old friend.” Falcon leaned very close and whispered into his ear. “I would play nice if I were you. I imagine the Horde would pay a good bit extra for the Fire Princess, don’t you?”

“You wouldn’t.”

Falcon laughed. “Throw him below, lads. Maybe after a few hours quality time with the rats, he’ll be ready to be reasonable.”

The men shoved him to the deck—to his own deck!—and bound his arms. Sea Hawk seethed as they shoved him into the brig and jeered at him from behind the locked door. He wanted to kill Falcon, wanted to make him pay for betraying him, even if it wouldn’t undo what had happened to the others. 

Not good at business, was he? Well, there is one thing he was VERY good at. He felt for the lighter in his pocket. 

—

By the time they brought him back above-decks, the ship was at least a day and a half from Seaworthy, the sky dark, the moons nowhere near where they should have been if they were still on course. He wondered, dimly, where Falcon was taking them. Not that it mattered. He’d die before he’d go anywhere with him.

The crew were at their dinners, taking their meal in the open air. He hadn’t eaten since Seaworthy but the ache in his stomach was nothing compared to the rage that twisted in his gut when he saw Falcon, still wearing his mother’s coat, wiping his greasy fingers against the side of it like it was nothing more than a fancy napkin. All around, the crew watched him, familiar faces alongside the new. The little cabin boy from before saw his hands bound behind his back and looked away. 

“There you are. You must be hungry!” Falcon grinned around a mouthful of chicken. The coat was way too big for him and he looked like a bratty boy playing at dress up. “Sit! Join us!”

How much time did he have? Enough for a last meal? He edged closer to the table, the smell of food almost nauseating on an empty stomach.

“Nuh, uh uh!” Falcon scolded, rising from his chair. “First, you have do a little groveling. Tell the entire crew how sorry you are for all the trouble you nearly got them into back there. And then you’re going to promise to be a very good boy for me. You’ll be on the crew like everyone else, scrub the deck, empty the buckets and, best of all…” Falcon put his hands on Sea Hawk’s chest and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “… you’re going to call me Captain.” 

“This isn’t one of your bedroom games, Falcon.” Sea Hawk hissed. Then he raised his voice enough that the whole crew would hear. “Does the crew know how you betrayed your oldest friend on a whim? How you sent the rebellion to their deaths just for, what did you call it… a prank? Because if I were them, I’d wonder how much a man like that would value my loyalty, let alone my life.”

Sea Hawk glanced at the crew. It was hard to tell how many of those glares were directed at him and how many were at Falcon. But he was running out of time.

“I said you had to call me Captain!” Falcon stomped his foot in a full pout, and Sea Hawk decided he’d had enough. He let go of the rope he’d been holding around his hands as if they were still bound and grabbed behind him for the two goons who’d brought him up here. He shoved them forward as he tossed himself backwards, using their own weight against them, cracking their head together. He grabbed onto the nearest rope, hosting himself out of Falcon’s reach. 

“I’m giving you one last chance to give me back my ship.” Sea Hawk called down. “Or else.”

“Or else what, you fool? This is MY crew now. You’re outnumbered two dozen to one.” 

“Suit yourself.” Sea Hawk grinned as the hatch opened and the cook came out, coughing and sputtering, smoke pouring out behind them.

“It’s her!” The cook screamed. “She knows! She knows what the Captain’s done to those poor people, and she’s come to make us pay in flames! We’re done for!”

The crew exploded into chaos and panic. There were screams of “Fire!” as they scattered, calling for water and buckets and other things that wouldn’t work. 

“Sorry, about your boat, Momma,” Sea Hawk whispered under his breath. The ship creaked then, loud and long, and it left him with the strangest feeling that she wanted him to know she approved. The woman did always have a weak spot for adventure. 

“There’s no such thing as the Fire Princess, you idiots! It’s only…” Falcon’s eyes widened, and he rounded on him. “You wouldn’t! Not your own ship! Even you’re not that crazy.”

“My former friend, you have no idea how crazy I am!” He jumped then, feet first, right onto Falcon’s chest. He was back on his feet before the other man had even caught his breath, his mother’s coat back on his back. 

Ha! Now all he needed to do was get to the lifeboat he’d prepared and—Oof. Before he realized what had happened, there was a cutlass to his neck and a burly arm wrapped around his shoulders. The goons from before were back on their feet and from the look on this one’s face they were not feeling forgiving for the lumps on their head. 

“Wait! Don’t kill him!” Falcon snatched the sword from the other man. For half a moment, Sea Hawk thought the man might actually do the right thing for once in his life, but he raised the sword and pointed it at him again. “I want to do it. Well, Hawk, before I cut your throat, any last—”

With a sickening crack, the man who’d been holding Sea Hawk from behind fell to the deck. Before Sea Hawk could even work out what was happening, one of the heavy metal hooks they used to hoist the cargo slammed into the head of the other goon, sending him crashing into Falcon. The two men ended up in a heap on the deck. 

“Captain The Sea Hawk, sir! Get out of here!” The cabin boy stood on the table, another hook in his hand. He pitched it at one of Falcon’s other goons, catching her in her sword arm and saving the second mate from being skewered.

Sea Hawk looked around him at the chaos on the deck. They were fighting. His crew against Falcon’s. Meanwhile, smoke was coiling up between the floorboards. 

“No, lad, you get out of here. There’s only two boats left, on the starboard side. Make sure the good folks get out. And, once you’re safe, let people know what happened, that the Fire Princess is always watching. You understand me?” 

“Yes, sir, Captain The Sea Hawk, sir.” The boy jumped down off the table with a squelch and starting weaving through the melee. A good lad, that. Though, if he didn’t catch up with him before they took those boats, he’d just given away his only escape route. 

Another goon swung at him, a scaly woman he’d never liked, but the cook was there, slamming down on her head with a frying pan. Sea Hawk repayed the favor, blocking a slice that nearly took off the cook’s head. Or, at least, he was pretty sure it was their head. It was hard to tell with those mollusk types. 

Sea Hawk grabbed what he hoped was the cook’s shoulder. “Get to the lifeboat with the others! Hurry, before the whole thing goes down!” 

They nodded and took off. The whole deck was on fire now, the heat stinging at his eyes. Flame licked at the railings he’d climbed as a little boy, the deck he and his mother had lay on to watch the sky back when it was actually blue was charred, whole sections collapsed. He swallowed a single sob and then shook himself out of it. There was no turning back now. 

“I’m the Captain now! I pay your wages! You should be loyal to ME!” Falcon was screaming himself purple in the middle of the carnage. He saw Sea Hawk and lunged with his sword point. Sea Hawk jumped onto the railing, out of reach. Falcon tried another wild stab, but Sea Hawk dodged it easily and the point stabbed into the wood, stuck fast. 

“Always been the sort to make other people fight your battles, and your form with a weapon shows it!” Sea Hawk said. He risked taking his eyes off Falcon for a moment. It looked like most of his crew had gotten out. Everyone left was running around, trying to deal with the fire. The flames had eaten through the mast and the whole thing looked ready to collapse at any moment. That was his cue to get to the boat before the whole thing went up. 

Damn it! Pain slashed across his ankle, a sword strike. He fell backwards, catching the railing at the last moment. He pulled himself back up, trying to catch purchase on the side of the ship, but he was weak from hunger and tired from the fight. Fire poured out of a window just below him and he could barely breathe in the heat. 

“Before I kill you, explain something to me.” Falcon’s red face appeared above him, his hair sweat stuck across his forehead, the edges of his puffy shirt charred. He leaned against the railing next to Sea Hawk’s desperately clinging fingers like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Why did they fight for you? Do they know it was you all those times?”

“I don’t… think they do.” His fingers ached with the force of holding himself up. He kicked at the side of the ship, his ankle screaming with pain, but he couldn’t get a foothold. He wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. 

“Then why? Why do you care what happens to the rebellion or the crew or anybody? Why does every idiot along this coast care about some long dead princesses when Lord Hordak gives well enough as long as you grease the right hands and keep your mouth shut? Why, even now, does this damn crew care more about you and your stupid stories than me and my gold? I don’t understand.”

“No… you don’t…” Any minute now he was going to fall or suffocate, the air was so thick with the smell of smoke. “You have never understood… About caring for other people… about hope…” Sea Hawk gasped for breath, but it felt like the air itself was on fire, every gulp searing his lungs. Behind Falcon, the sails caught, and it would almost be beautiful to watch the flames race towards the night sky if he had not watched enough ships burn to know exactly what came next. “That’s the thing about all of this you and Hordak and everyone else like you will never understand. If you start them with the right spark, there are some fires nothing can put out.”

And then he let go, just as the mast tilted downward. He heard it smash the deck into flaming splinters as he slammed into the water; the force knocking the air from his lungs. Underwater, it looked like even the sea itself was on fire, light dancing across the waves, the deep illuminated by the blaze above.

He hadn’t gotten a big enough breath. His lungs were already burning. He started kicking, forcing his leg to move despite the pain from the slice in his ankle. He had to get back to the surface, had to get to the boat, but his coat was dragging him downward. He yanked it off, letting it fall behind him, but it had taken too long and now it was too late. He’d sunk too far. The fire was high above him now, and the murky depths below felt like they were reaching up to claim him. 

Well, he thought, as his limbs grew too heavy to kick and his vision blurred, so this was it. He’d had a pretty good run. Went out with a blaze of glory, at least.

He started as a shark came into view. It was circling, probably attracted by the blood from his ankle. He should probably feel afraid, but the threat of being eaten by a shark when you’re already drowning seemed like a minor detail. For what it was worth, the shark looked as surprised to see him as he did it. It was a strangely beautiful thing, with eyes like a perfectly polished deck rail, covered all over with blue-green scales. 

Did sharks normally have scales? He couldn’t remember. He had the most ludicrous idea to reach out and try to touch it when his breath gave out. He choked as water rushed into his lungs.

The last thing that went through his head before he blacked out was something he’d heard once about death being the next great adventure. 

—

“Hey! Mustache! You dead or what?” 

Sea Hawk felt the sudden sharp sting of someone slapping him across the face. Air! He gasped for breath, reflexively, but there was plenty. He moved his arms to swim, but they only slid across the… sand? 

How? He’d been… the boat and then fire and… the water… Shouldn’t he be dead right now?

There was something he was forgetting. Something he was supposed to do. An image swam into his mind, blurred like a dream.

“Uh, gosh. You know, Catra, I don’t know if you should be hitting him like that. He looks like he’s in pretty rough shape.”

“I don’t care what shape he’s in! If he’s alive, he can give us answers! Come on, help me get him upright.” What felt more like a giant lobster claw than a hand gripped him under the arms and suddenly he was upright, leaning against something that was jabbing him uncomfortably in the back. Probably a rock from the feel of it. 

Catra. He knew that name. The other one must be Scorpia. They were Huntara’s girls. Her daughters. Or maybe sisters? He wasn’t entirely sure what the nature of their family dynamic was, only that it was not biological and they’d had a falling out long before he’d gotten mixed up with the rebellion. 

“We don’t have time to sit around and wait for him to wake up! Every minute we waste is another minute Hordak’s got her. If we don’t get to her first, there’s only two options here and they both suck, OK? Either they fry her brain and she’s gone for good or the chip her and then they know everything. Everything!” Catra sounded like she was halfway between ripping someone’s head off and bursting into tears. “I’m going to hit him again.”

“I’m awake!” Sea Hawk said, coughing. He lifted his hands in front of his face, but they felt like lead. He opened his eyes and focused on the angry face of a cat girl only a few years younger than him, her face surrounded by a massive mane of fur. “Where am I?”

“No. Where is she? Huntara. And the rest of the rebellion. Where did they take them?”

“I have no idea.” He tried to sit up, but his body felt like someone had filled him with salt water and then sucked it all back out again. He saw the other girl now, pacing back and forth nervously, her blue sun dress a sharp contrast with her massive claws and stinger. “Honest. I didn’t betray them.”

“I know. You’re the ship captain guy, right? Seagull.”

“Sea Hawk.”

“Whatever.” Catra ran her claws through her hair. “Look, we don’t have a lot of time. We have to get her back. And we can’t do it alone. We need the rest of the rebellion. There’s more of them, right? Up in the Whispering Woods? Huntara said you used to do runs for them up there, supplies and stuff, back and forth. You know where they are.”

“I do.” He was trying to focus on the conversation, but the dream still had hold of him. A touch so perfectly soft and… familiar too, somehow. Blue-green waves… No. More like… hair?

“And you can take us there?”

“I can.” Bubbles. So many bubbles he could breathe even though they were at the bottom of the ocean. The emerald shimmer of a tail. Like something out of legends. A delusion, probably, from being so close to death. He tried to shake the vision, but it kept coming back stronger than ever. “But I’d need a boat.”

“Yeah, fine, whatever. We can get you a boat.”

Those eyes… The same ones as on the… But, no, they were her eyes, there was something about the way widened when she… when he… 

Sea Hawk gasped, sitting upright. For the first time since he’d woken, he took in the beach they were sitting on, his clothes caked with dried salt water, the fact that his ankle was bandaged with what looked like seaweed. But he couldn’t focus on any of that. He tried to get to his feet and almost fell over. 

“I need a boat!” 

Catra looked at him like he was crazy. “Uh, yeah, we just said, we’d rent you one.”

“No. A boat of my own.” He nodded thanks as Scorpia held out a claw and helped him to his feet. He was still wobbly, but he felt like he could run a mile right now. His heart was trying to beat out of his chest. “I will take you to find the rebellion. You can get their help, rescue your people, and then I… I have to tell them. They need to know!”

“Uh, I’m lost. Need to know what, exactly?” Scorpia looked from him to Catra and back again. Catra was staring at him with her claws tensed like she was wondering if she’d have to take him out. 

“By the gods, this changes EVERYTHING! All the old stories! The MAGIC! Of course! Of course it wouldn’t just be gone, how could it?” He was laughing now, and he didn’t even know why, giddy excitement bubbling over. 

“Soooo, the rebellion?” Scorpia prompted, like she was talking to an infant. 

“Yes, yes, I’ll take you. But we must leave at once. Because then I have something I must do.”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, vengeance on the dude who stole your boat. We heard all about it from the—”

“No. I don’t care about that.” Though he was slightly surprised to hear that Falcon had apparently made it out of that wreck alive. “Something much more important.”

He took a deep breath and then laughed until tears slid down his salt caked face. Huntara’s girls exchanged a look like they thought he’d lost his mind, but he didn’t even care. Maybe he had! But he remembered now. All of it! And he knew exactly what he had to do. 

Sea Hawk grinned. “The Princess of Salineas is still alive. And I have to find her.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Because I die a little inside every time someone nags to me update a fic, I'm making this a series of related one-shots instead of a multi-chapter fic. 
> 
> Comments are always hugely appreciated!
> 
> Visit my Tumblr for fic updates and misc thoughts. <https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com/>


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